


Burdensome Names

by TeethHunter



Category: RWBY
Genre: Found Family, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Team STRQ - Freeform, poly team strq, summer rose is summer maiden au, team strq all have Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:35:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22627966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeethHunter/pseuds/TeethHunter
Summary: Such a heavy burden, to have a name that steals away your choice.Choice is fundamentally part of what makes us human, after all.Summer Rose is born for the sole purpose to become the Summer Maiden.
Relationships: Qrow Branwen/Summer Rose, Qrow Branwen/Summer Rose/Taiyang Xiao Long, Raven Branwen/Summer Rose, Raven Branwen/Summer Rose/Taiyang Xiao Long, Summer Rose/Taiyang Xiao Long
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	Burdensome Names

The Roses were known for their silver eyes and the flurry of petals left by their semblance. The Roses were the last known line of Silver Eyed Warriors. Perhaps there were others with those eyes, deep in hiding, unaware of their powers, or perhaps they were truly this near extinction. That didn’t matter. What mattered was the last of the Roses just gave birth to a healthy baby girl with bright silver eyes.

Just before the girl’s birth, three men had arrived and told them a familiar story of the seasons, a simple fairy tale. If they were not living legends themselves, the Roses might have had a harder time believing it when told this tale was reality.

The Roses were given an offer- or maybe it was just a plea, a desperate plan to save a world they had no idea was in so much danger. Their child, if born a girl, could be the key. A Maiden and a Silver Eyed Warrior all in one, a weapon.

Her fate was sealed the moment she took her first breath.

A new Rose with beautiful silver eyes, given an inescapable fate and heavy burden of a name.

Summer Rose

\------------------------------

Summer’s favorite place was atop the huge oak tree in the enclosed courtyard. If she stood on the very top branch, and stretched up she could see the rolling hills surrounding the house. There were no windows to get this view from, high walls surrounded the whole house. When she got caught by one of the maids, she just giggled and waved down at them. She only came down when she felt like it- hopping to the ground from a limb that was ‘much too high to be safe’, according to the nurse maid.

Summer rarely got to leave the confines of the house. Only when Old Man Oswald came by was that allowed. Oswald had trembling hands and a very fancy cane he leaned on heavily. He didn’t talk much, but he brought Summer to a bunch of different places. Usually the nearby lake, or the woods beyond the meadows— never anywhere that many people might be. If there were strangers, Summer knew she was to veil her eyes; eye contact was reserved for trusted people only.

Just after Summer’s seventh birthday, Old Man Oswald showed up looking very somber. Summer thought he always looked a little bit sad, but this was different. They still went out that day, but didn’t go far.

Oswald usually trailed behind her, letting the child run free, but this time he was going even slower than usual. They only made it to the third hill away from the house before Oswald told her that they were going to stay here for the day, have a seat in the grass and enjoy the crackers and juice he had brought with. Summer sat down, and began to pick the little flowers around her to try to make a chain.

“I’m sorry.” She heard a wavering voice say. When she looked over at him, he was staring into the distance, not at her. “You have much ahead of you, that you didn’t choose.”

She didn’t understand what he meant, and didn’t really like the sad look he had on his face. She passed him the haphazard little chain of daisies, which at least got him to look at her.

“This will be the last time I visit.” He said finally. Summer froze.

“What?” The feeling she had was selfish, then again she was just a child. If he was gone, would she ever be allowed out again.

“We will meet again, Miss Rose.” He assured, seeing that she was close to tears. Summer relaxed just a little then.

“Though.” He smiled tiredly. “I fear you most likely won’t recognize me.”

Summer smiled, “You are very easy to recognize. I think I will.”

Later that evening, he bid her a farewell. The next day, Summer climbed to the top of the oak tree and didn’t come down for a long, long time. She stared at the grassy hills, unsure of when she would be free again.

  
\------------------------------

The house Summer lived in was quite big, though there was a whole half of it that only she was allowed to come and go from freely. That was the half of the house grandma Verna lived in. No one but Summer was allowed to see Verna, for reasons Summer wouldn’t understand for a long time yet. Summer didn’t mind though, she spent most of her time in that half of the house. The maids came and went, so she learned not to get attached long ago, to the point she hardly bothered to remember their names.

Grandma Verna was different, she was always there and always happy to see her. She taught Summer all sorts of things, how to bake cookies, how to read and write, how to clean things, and build things, and all sorts of practical skills.

She also taught Summer about more complicated things, like hope, love, and loneliness.

“What’s lonely mean?” Summer asked one day. She had read that word in a book, and like any child with no frame of reference for an emotion, she was curious.

“Well…” Verna paused, trying to find the words to explain this to a child. “There will be a day where you are surrounded by people you love, and you will feel warm, and you will remember this time and this place and remember how cold it felt. That is loneliness.”

Summer frowned. “I don’t feel cold.”

“No, I suppose you don’t, but that’s because you don’t know what warmth feels like.”

“I do! Standing next to the fireplace, or being under blankets makes me warm.”

“I mean a different sort of warm, an emotional warmth.”

Summer tilted her head, confused.

“You don’t have to understand it right now. Just… remember what I am telling you. One day you will be surrounded by people you love, and you might realize some things about the decisions people made for you. You will feel cold, you might even be angry about it, and that is okay, you should be,”

Summer opened her mouth to say something, to argue.

“But,” Verna interrupted. “When that happens, and you remember this coldness, I want you to turn to those people you love and let them warm you back up. I want you to look at them and remember that people are worth fighting for. Can you promise me that, little Rose?”

“I promise?” Summer sounded unsure, but tried her best to look serious. Her eyebrows furrowed as she thought of something. “Do you– is it cold here, for you?” She asked.

That same sad looking smile crossed Verna’s face. “Only sometimes, but never when you’re here.”

~~~~~~~~

Grandma Verna told her all sorts of stories, but there was one she told Summer almost every night: the story of the seasons. When Summer was very little she used to get excited every time Verna would list the seasons, mostly because there was one with her name.

No matter how many times Summer heard the story it never got old, because Verna added new details all the time. Over the years she added in what sorts of powers the maidens had, how new maidens were chosen, and eventually even their purpose in protecting the relics and humanity. The last addition to the story was Verna’s own memories of being the Summer Maiden.

Summer’s eyes widened at that revelation. “So you have all those powers? Can you show me?”

“I am old, and tired, I fear they take too much of a toll on me to use.”

Summer looked just a little disappointed, but nodded. “That’s okay, if it’ll make you too tired, you shouldn’t use them.”

“You will get to see those powers in action one day, little Rose. By then you will know so much more, and be so much stronger.” Verna assured her.

~~~~~~~~

Not long after that, combat teachers began to arrive at the house. They start to train Summer in the basics of Aura control, and simple dodging, all the stuff that’s taught at primary level combat school.

~~~~~~~~

Summer is twelve when grandma Verna gets very ill. She is allowed to skip training to stay with her. There are people that come and go, to bring food and medicine, more people than ever had been on this side of the house. They all cover their faces and never say a word. Summer stays with grandma Verna as her breathing gets raspier and more labored, until she breathes her last breath.

Summer curls up in a ball and sobs. When Verna first described loneliness to her, she didn’t get it, she thinks now she might because she feels awfully cold. There’s a flurry of dual colored rose petals surrounding her the whole time she sits there on the floor, but she doesn’t lift her head to notice. At that very moment, the maids, teachers, and doctor on the other side of the house felt a coldness in their chest that wasn’t their own, some even beginning to cry involuntarily.

In one night Summer both unlocks her semblance and fulfills her name in becoming the Summer Maiden. She couldn’t care less about either of those things.


End file.
